1. The house of delicacies of Bela krajina

The house in the old town of Metlika, which was once a shop, offers selected local products.  You can choose from the best that the local winemakers, fruit growers, gardeners, beekeepers, herbalists and other producers of Bela krajina delicacies offer.

Mestni trg 7, T: 07 363 60 55

2. The town hall

The building from 1869 has a noticeable cast of the town’s coat-of-arms – a castle with two ravens – on the roof façade of the masonry towers.  There has been an inbuilt memorial plaque in honour of the soldiers who fell during the First World War since 1928.  During the Second World War, the town hall was the seat of the National Liberation Committee.

Mestni trg 24

3. The church of st. Nicholas

The church was first mentioned in 1334.  After the fires during the Turkish invasions in the 16th century, a new one was built. In 1759, after a fire at the beginning of the 18th century, a Baroque church was built on its remains. It was modelled after the cruciform church in Ljubljana.  The Way of the Cross in the church is the work of Josip Egartner.  It was paid for and hung by Frederick Irenej Baraga, who later became a missionary and a bishop among the American Indians. He served as chaplain in Metlika in the years 1828 – 1830.

Mestni trg 14

4. The Commenda house

Strictly military and hierarchically organized crusaders based in East Prussia came to Bela krajina soon after their establishment.  The Commenda of the Teutonic Knights in Metlika is mentioned in 1310. 40 years later, the order’s hospice is also mentioned.  The crusaders, who were first soldiers, were later priests and caregivers of the sick.  The Metlika Commenda and the adjacent Provost’s House form a unified building structure. They were used as infirmary before the Second World War. Today, the retirement home is located on the premises.

Mestni trg 16

5. The birthplace of Alojz and Engelbert Gangl

Alojz Gangl (1859 – 1935) created the first Slovenian statue of national importance during his studies in Vienna.  He made a bronze statue of Valentin Vodnik, an important Slovene enlightener. His statue was placed in front of the then Ljubljana lyceum in 1888.  His expressionist statue of Christ – the lone traveller, stands in front of the cemetery in Metlika. His nephew, Engelbert Gangl (1873 – 1950), was a writer, teacher and Sokol organizer.  They were both born in the same house in Metlika.

Mestni trg 19

6. The Obrh educational trail

The educational path along the Obrh, a left tributary of the Kolpa River, presents the rich ethnological and environmental history of the stream, which springs under the walls of the old town of Metlika.

The path to the source of drinking water is 200 meters long. The information boards along the way present underground and above-ground system of the Obrh.  You can rest on the benches, while younger visitors have fun and play.

7. The spring of the Obrh

The spring of the Obrh, from which drinking water was once carried into the town, was an important meeting point where women gathered for washing.  The laundry was washed by placing old shards on the bottom of a wooden bucket. They were covered with a large sheet and stacked pieces of laundry to the top of the bucket.  Then they arranged beech ash, bound in linen bags, onto the laundry.  The bucket had a hole on the side that was plugged with a stick.  Water boiled in a cauldron was poured over the laundry in the bucket and left to cool down.  This was repeated until the laundry was washed.  The ‘laundry spot’ is now arranged as an adventure scene with a bucket.

8. The birthplace of Anton and Ivan Navratil

Ivan Navratil (1825 – 1896) was a Slovene linguist, ethnographer and editor who founded the first Slovene youth newspaper – the weekly called Vedež.  He collected linguistic and ethnological materials from Bela krajina and compared and explained his findings with the phenomena from elsewhere.  He also worked hard all the time to establish the Slovene standard language.  Anton Navratil (1832 – 1897) was the founder of the reading society and its president for 20 years.        They were both born in the same house in Metlika.

Partizanski trg 30

9. The Ivan Navratil Folkore group from Metlika

In Metlika, young people once danced and sang on Vuzem (Easter) Monday as was the Metlika custom.  Ivan Navratil wrote about this in 1849.  In 1936, the first folklore group was founded in Metlika.  This heritage has been carried on since 1976 by MFS Ivan Navratil folklore group, which cultivates dances and songs of the entire Bela krajina area.  The group has toured in almost all European countries.  Under the auspices of the group, there is a tamburitza ensemble that accompanies the dancers at performances.

10. Branko Božič’s Slovenian fire museum

The museum, founded in 1969, on the centennial of organized firefighting in Slovenia with preserved uniforms, helmets, axes and other firefighting gear, represents the time before the First World War.  The museum, named after the long standing President of the Firefighting Association of Slovenia, exhibits an old firefighting technique on four-wheeled carts. In the pavilion adjacent to the building, numerous portable fire sprinklers are exhibited. The oldest dates from 1836.

Trg svobode 5, T: 07 30 58 697

11. Metlika castle

Metlika Castle stands on the highest point of the natural promontory between the Obrh and the Bojica streams.  The medieval documents first mention it in 1338, but its design is probably much older.  Inside the castle building is a spacious courtyard surrounded by arcades.  The castle played an important defensive role during the Turkish invasions in the 15th and 16th centuries.  After the fires of 1705 and 1790, the former fortress got the appearance of a town residence.

Trg svobode 4

12. The Bela krajina museum

The permanent exhibition in Metlika Castle tells the story of Bela Krajina from prehistory to the mid-20th century. It includes the archaeological collection of the finds from the ancient times, the cultural and historical collection, showing the time since the occurrence of towns in the 14th century to the times of the Illyrian Provinces, and the ethnological collections about “Beli Kranjci”, who were known for their white apparels.  The collection of contemporary history recalls the most important events in the first half of the 20th century. Here, the time period of the WWII stands out, when there was a unique free partisan territory between the Kolpa and the Gorjanci hills.

Metlika Castle, Trg svobode 4, T: 07 306 33 70

13. Vinoteka Šturm wine shop

In the wine shop on the ground floor of Metlika Castle you can taste a variety of wines: white, red or rosé, youthful or mature, dry or sweet, calm or sparkling.  Grapes for their excellent wines grow on a family estate in nearby Vidošiči, just a few kilometres from the centre of Metlika.

Castle cellar, Trg svobode 4, T: 031 632 470

14. The statue of the poet Oton Župančič

Oton Župančič (1878 – 1949) was born in the Bela Krajina village of Vinica. During his lifetime, he enjoyed the reputation of the greatest living Slovenian poet.  He was the president of the Slovenian Writers’ Association, the first president of the Slovenian PEN and one of the first members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.  His bust was erected in 1978 by the Bela Krajina Museum Society, and was made by the academic sculptor Zdenko Kalin.  In Vinica, you can see the museum collection about the Bela Krajina master of words in his birth house.

15. The Kambič gallery

The collection of national importance, which was donated to the town by the Kambič couple in 2003, includes cultural and historical objects (paintings on glass, furniture, clocks, lamps, arts and crafts products) and artworks of various Slovenian artists: from the generation of realists and impressionists to the now living artists.  The house also includes a collection dedicated to the donors – the doctor Vinko Kambič and the opera singer Vilma Bukovec Kambič.

Cesta bratstva in enotnosti 51, T: 07 305 83 32

The Bara Juričina house

The house, inscribed in the Franciscan land registry in 1824, is an important cultural monument.  The house with an L-shaped floor plan is one of the 100 most beautiful farmhouses in Slovenia.  With its originality, it still shows the living conditions and social dimensions of the former architecture within the urban area.

Frelihova ulica 4